Thursday, August 24, 2006

Irvine 10k

I've been feeling a bit better - I've been doing my stretching every night and my hamstrings haven't been as sore. On Monday night I went out for a run and on route met my friend Kim. We ran together for about 3 miles and just got faster and faster. Neither of us wanted to admit we were feeling the pace hard (at least I didn't - Kim probably felt fine) so we just pushed on and on and on. It felt good and was a great confidence boost, so I decided to test myself out in a real 10k race at Irvine.

Lining up at the start, I realised that the field was made up of pretty much the same people that had taken part in the Irvine 10k 10 or so years ago. It was like stepping back in time. Where are all the newcomers? I set off at a good pace and just tried to keep it going for as long as I could. At the turning point just before the half way(about 4.5k) I noticed that a friend and ex clubmate from Troon Tortoises, Bobby, wasn't far behind, and I spent the next 5k expecting him to come past. To my great surprise it didn't happen and I crossed the line in 38.53, 25 seconds in front of him. It's nowhere near my best time but it is a lot better than some of my more recent performances, so I was quite pleased. It was great to run with so many people from the Ayrshire clubs - I have definitely missed that in the 3 years since we moved away from Troon.

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